The present invention relates to a boom guide system. More particularly, the invention relates to a containment boom guide system comprising one or more boom guide(s) used in guiding and containing a floating containment boom to a fixed structure such as a pier, ship, column, dock, sea wall, or other like structure.
Floating containment booms are utilized to confine materials such as oil, gas or other pollutants from spreading on the surface of a liquid including but not limited to a river, lake or ocean. Containment of an oil spill is the process of preventing its spread by confining the oil, gas or other pollutants to the area where it has been discharged. Containment booms can be used temporarily or permanently to contain spills in these bodies of water and certain types of booms can be used permanently around dock areas where there is a potential recurrence of pollutant spills caused by the docked ships.
Containment booms come in many different shapes, sizes and styles ranging from small models intended for manual deployment in harbors, to large, robust units which usually need cranes and sizeable vessels designed for the open seas to handle them. In waters having varying tide conditions, the floating containment boom must rise and fall with the tide to confine the pollutants floating on the surface.
Containment booms may be comprised of a plurality of boom segments that extend over a body of water to form an elongate, moderately flexible skirt. Containment booms generally incorporates the following features: (1) freeboard to prevent or reduce splash-over; (2) sub-surface skirt to prevent or reduce escape of oil under the boom; (3) flotation by air or some buoyant material; and (4) longitudinal tension member such as a chain or wire to provide strength to withstand the effects of winds, waves and currents.
Floating containment booms can be affixed at one or both ends thereof to a fixed structure such as a pier, ship, column, dock, sea wall, or other like structure to keep the containment boom in place. Various devices have been utilized to attach the ends of the floating containment booms to fixed structures such as piers, docks, and other like structures. These devices must allow the containment booms to rise and fall with the tide.
There are several patents which disclose a device for affixing the ends of a containment boom to a fixed structure or to another boom. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,766,738; 4,016,726; and 4,003,206 each disclose a device for affixing the end of a floating boom to a fixed structure while allowing the containment boom to rise and fall with the tide. Other patent applications disclose devices and methods for attaching booms to each other such as the inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,859,796 and 3,685,296.
While there are several designs for devices to attach the end of a containment boom to a fixed structure and attach the end of a containment boom to other sections of containment booms, the art demonstrates a need for a boom guide system that stabilizes the body of the containment boom near a fixed structure such as a pier, ship, column, dock, sea wall, or other like structure so that the body of the boom will not float away from the structure. The only systems that are currently in use for stabilizing the body of the containment boom utilize crude cable systems that are unreliable, hard to maintain, and pose a danger to those working at the base of the to a fixed structure such as a pier, ship, column, dock, sea wall, or other like structure due to entanglement of the cables in equipment.